


The Footage

by SML8180



Series: Chaos is Normal Universe [6]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Burns, Fights, Foreshadowing, Gun Violence, How Do I Tag, M/M, Misgendering, Musical References, Sassy Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Sassy Deceit | Janus Sanders, Teenage Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Teenage Deceit | Janus Sanders, Teenagers, Trans Male Character, Trans Male Deceit | Janus Sanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:42:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29022912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SML8180/pseuds/SML8180
Summary: Janus is still in a room in the Medical wing of the Bureau's headquarters, recovering from the injuries caused by his father. Virgil and Roman come in to review the footage of what happened with Janus. Once Roman leaves, Virgil and Janus make a very big decision.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Series: Chaos is Normal Universe [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029381
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	The Footage

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place between chapters 21 and 22 of Chaos is Normal (for Us, at Least), and depicts Janus' direct view (via the hidden camera he was wearing) of the events of chapter 19.
> 
> As such, this chapter contains Janus' father misgendering him, a very physical/violent fight between the two of them, mentions of burns, and guns/gunfire. Please be aware of this going forward.

Janus was still laid up following the events at the Prescott house. The SBIS medical staff were taking good care of him, and he was slowly chipping away at the school work he had piling up, with help from Patton, Emile, Virgil, and his mother. He was just finishing up an English assignment when Virgil came in carrying a laptop, with Roman not far behind him.

“Hey,” Janus greeted, setting his pencil and notebook aside. “What’s up?”

“I heard you wanted to see the footage from Viper’s study,” Roman replied, taking a seat in the chair by the bed. Janus’ mother, April, was currently getting some proper rest in Logan’s office, giving the three of them time to go over the footage. April herself had already seen the footage in question.

“Yeah,” Janus nodded a bit. “I remember most of it pretty well, but, I just wanna see.”

“Review everything with a clear head?” Roman proposed.

“Yeah,” Janus confirmed.

Janus was able to scoot over on the bed with Virgil’s help, enough to where Virgil could sit on the bed beside him, so that all three of them could watch the video. Virgil opened up the laptop and navigated to the window that would display the footage, already stopped at the timestamp where Janus was standing outside Viper’s study.

“Might be a bastard, but he gets points for the mood lighting,” Virgil commented before even hitting play.

“You’re not wrong,” Janus responded.

Virgil chuckled a bit and hit play, and the trio sat and watched things unfold, as they were captured by the camera that had been hidden in Janus’ bowtie that night had captured them.

Janus watched as he entered the office, and as Joseph turned his chair around, he reached out and paused the footage, stifling a laugh. “He was just  _ waiting _ for me like some Bond villain,” he chuckled.

“He was,” Virgil laughed. “All he needed was a cat to pet dramatically,” he suggested.

“Mm-hm,” Janus hummed, before hitting play again. He watched with Virgil and Roman as his initial conversation went on. He remembered making the,  _ “She’s not here at the moment, may I take a message?” _ quip, and making the observation that Joseph had been cut earlier in the day. The footage paused again after that exchange, this time by Virgil.

“Did you intend to reference the Broadway version of Newsies, or did that just happen?” Virgil questioned.

“I didn’t even realize I made that reference, actually,” Janus admitted.

“I mean, he  _ does _ give off Broadway Pulitzer vibes, so it’s fair,” Roman commented.

The two teens nodded in agreement, before Virgil hit play on the video again. Janus remembered the exchange that followed, as he properly entered the study. The Joseph in the footage, leaning back in his chair, looked far too smug, especially considering what would soon happen to him. He watched as the camera tilted down to look more at Joseph’s chest, as Janus rested his hands on the surface of the desk between them and he leaned in, eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose with Joseph. The delay between Janus straightening up to pull his fist back to punch Joseph, and Joseph’s reaction to realizing what was happening, was just as satisfying to watch as the actual hit itself had been to deliver in the first place.

The footage paused again, this time by Roman’s hand. “That was some impressive form on that punch,” he commented.

“I took a self-defense centered gym class second semester last year because I needed the half-credit but didn’t wanna be surrounded by assholes,” Janus shrugged. “Apparently it turned out really damn useful.”

“I’ll say,” Virgil agreed.

Roman nodded, “It was a good call,” he said. “And, I should mention, this recorded the footage, and all earpiece audio, so Remus’ comments are in here, too,” he informed the teen.

Janus nodded, and hit play on the video again. He watched as Joseph swung at him with the statue off his desk once, and again, and saw himself block the strike with his arm. That hadn’t been his brightest move. He saw Joseph take a blow to the head from the fire poker, before throwing the statue in his hand. He heard the statue hit his shin, and the camera turned down and jostled as he fell to one knee. He watched as his past self stabbed Joseph in the leg, drawing a cry of,  _ “You  _ **_bastard_ ** _!”  _ from the man. Janus couldn’t help but chuckle at his sassy,  _ “Now we’re making a bit of progress,” _ response.

The camera on Janus’ bowtie turned down towards the floor, following the strike he took to the head. He watched as he made an effort to get up, only to take a second, then a third strike, sending him to the floor completely. The clatter of the metal fire poker being tossed to the hardwood floor was heard, and the camera jostled again as Joseph grabbed the front of Janus’ shirt and started to drag him closer to the fire that even his present self had nearly forgotten about. The footage was quickly paused again by Roman.

“Are you sure you want to go further? This is where it starts getting bad,” the agent asked.

“I’m sure,” Janus stated. “I already lived it, after all.”

Roman gave a slow nod, before pressing play once more. The camera caught part of Joseph’s enraged, bloodied face as he shouted,  _ “You’ve been a thorn in my side for far too long, boy!” _ and Janus couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride. In the heat of the fight, his transphobic asshole of a father was calling him what he really was. Janus watched as the angle shifted a bit, and Joseph came more clearly into frame as he fell to his knees following Janus’ kick between his legs. He watched as his yellow-gloved hands reached up and grabbed Joseph’s lapels, and he pulled himself up just a bit, away from the fire that was right beside his head. He saw himself push Joseph off of him.

He saw the camera turn up to the ceiling, as he hadn’t accounted for the fact that pushing Joseph away would mean he no longer had anything to hold onto in order to keep himself up and away from the flames. He flinched a bit as he heard himself scream as he was burned.

Janus continued to watch with Roman and Virgil as his past self maneuvered away from the fire, and he knew he was pulling out the gun he’d had on him at the time. He watched as Joseph grabbed the front of his shirt again.

The first shot fired off, and Janus and Virgil, despite anticipating the sound, both jumped.

Janus couldn’t hear himself screaming, and for a second, he thought the audio had cut out, as the camera was damaged further by the heat of the fire. The lens was scorched by this point, making it incredibly difficult to see what was being captured, but the rugged little camera kept recording. It was proven that the audio was still recording when the second shot fired off, and Joseph let out a yell. Janus watched as he pushed himself away from the fire and seemed to feel for Joseph, who was writhing and screaming, too distracted to realize Janus was taking the flash drive from his pocket and holding it tight in his fist.

_ “You’ll get what’s coming, Janus! You fucking bastard!” _ Janus heard, and he paused the video. He’d heard his name that night, but he hadn’t been able to pick out just who had said it. Now that he was listening again, fully aware, he knew  _ exactly _ who said his name, and he couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled up from his chest.

“He said it,” the teen spoke through his chuckles. “He actually said it,” he said with a bit of a smile.

“You said you’d make him say your name, and you fucking did,” Virgil praised, smiling.

“Great work, Janus,” Roman commented. “Do you want to go through the rest? There isn’t a whole lot more after this.”

“Might as well,” Janus shrugged. “I don’t remember anything after this, honestly.”

Roman nodded a bit, and hit play on the footage once again. The obscured video continued, though the audio was mostly clear.

_ “I need another Medical agent over here!” _ Roman’s voice called out.  _ “We have an unconscious individual with severe burns!” _

_ “Isn’t this Deceit?” _ a feminine sounding voice questioned, as quick steps approached.

_ “He’s not to be arrested,” _ Roman determined.  _ “Whatever he did working for the Order wasn’t under his own free will. He’s one of us at this point.” _

_ “Of course, Agent Crown,” _ the feminine voice replied.  _ “He has something in his hand.” _

_ “Flash drive. I’ll make sure it gets to Intel.” _

_ “I need help to get him on the board. On three.” _

A count of three was heard, followed by a shuffling sound as Janus was apparently moved onto a backboard so he could be removed from the office. Roman reached over and stopped the playback; there wasn’t much else to go through from there.

“I’m not really one of you,” Janus said.

“You  _ are _ , Janus,” Roman told him. “You helped take down the Order. Even if you never pursue this line of work, most of us are gonna consider you one of our own.”

“You of all people know that the Order is  _ massive _ ,” Janus countered. “Getting rid of Viper and getting those files doesn’t mean they’re gonna be gone for good. There are Order connections all over the world. Even without Viper at the helm, they’ve got plenty of legs to run on.”

“Then we keep working to kick those legs out from under them,” Roman said. “We’re not going to stop just because we’ve got Viper and the files. There’s still work to do.”

“Speaking of work to do, Agent Crown,” a Medical agent cut in from the doorway. “A couple of Higher Ups are looking to speak with you.”

“Well, guess I’ve gotta get back to work. You two behave yourselves,” Roman joked, standing from his seat beside the bed. The agent left the room, leaving Janus and Virgil on their own.

“They’re gonna need help to take down what your family built up,” Virgil mused, looking towards the door Roman had just walked out of.

“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “They’re gonna need people who know what they’re doing. People who know what the Order is capable of.”

“Mm-hm,” Virgil hummed in agreement. A few beats of silence passed, before he looked over at Janus. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“We  _ are _ both heading towards graduation. And, the counselors are gonna be on our asses concerning college applications.”

“ _ And _ , we said we wanted to try to get into the same school.”

“Sometimes it’s a good thing we share a braincell,” Janus chuckled.

Virgil smirked a bit, and went about closing the player window on the laptop, and opened a browser window. Janus smiled as he watched his friend tap away at the keys. They both had a couple of applications to fill out.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact: This story was originally going to be a scene at the start of chapter 22, but I felt it broke up the flow a bit too much, and it didn't offer much at the time, so I cut it out and set it aside, figuring I could do something with it at some point, and this is the result! I made it a bit more robust, and decided to make it its own oneshot.


End file.
